Owner and headmaster of Portland, Oregon’s acclaimed Northwest Woodworking Studio, furniture craftsman and teacher Gary Rogowski offers a personal and meaningful meditation on finding focus, mental clarity and purpose in the modern age of distraction. This is one highly respected woodworker’s observation and journey into a passion and exercise that keeps him whole and gives him perspective as he navigates a world filled with intrusions. Chronicling why craft matters, this is a book most woodworkers can resonate with.

Culled from classic articles from Fine Woodworking magazine, master woodworker, owner and headmaster of The Centre for Furniture Craftsmanship Peter Korn covers virtually all the hand tools in the modern workshop. For convenience, tools are listed alphabetically within chapters organized by function, such as abrading, cutting, planing, sawing, etc. Beautifully illustrated, Korn’s Guide to Hand Tools explains what each tool is used for, which tools are essential for your shop, how to recognize quality when buying tools, how to tune-up tools for top performance, and in many cases, how to use each tool efficiently – all the information you need to get the best out of your tools. A definite resource for your go-to shelf in your woodworker’s library.

Playing a fine-sounding instrument that he or she has lovingly crafted from scratch is a thrill for many a musician. With this richly illustrated manual, well-known luthier and guitarist John Bogdanovich shows exactly how to build that first, beautiful guitar, using traditional, time-tested methods. All that’s required are basic woodworking techniques and a minimally equipped shop. Bogdanovich discusses the anatomy of the guitar, sound, choosing an instrument, selecting woods, templates and molds, and preparation. In more than 300 pages of text, he painstakingly lays out the details of construction, from assembling the neck and sides to installing the fingerboard and bridge.

Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use was compiled as a follow-up to Schwarz’s Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use. It includes complete plans, expert instruction and rationale for building various workbench forms, as well as instruction on improving existing workbenches for better workholding, and an improved woodworking shop.

Schwarz takes you through the design of 9 specific workbenches and critiques of 10 additional workbenches, as well as his suggestions for making any bench work most effectively for the type of work the user does. The 9 workbench plans have a range suitable for handwork and power tools. A discussion of workbench design rules teaches what is effective in a multitude of work situations, and why. Along with expert instruction and rationale for building various workbench forms, improving existing workbenches for better workholding, and an improved woodworking shop, Workbenchesincludes guidance on additional workholding options–from shop-made jigs and commercial bench dogs to vise hardware.

You might want to take note that this is an updated edition of Schwarz’s 2011 Workbench Design Book. In this revision, your very first workbench will do everything you need it to do–possibly for the rest of your woodworking career. Encompassing years of historical research and real-world trials, Christopher Schwarz boils down centuries of the history and engineering of workbenches into basic ideas that all woodworkers can use: designing your own bench, classic rules of good design, how to build an inexpensive and practical bench, and how to properly use any workbench. Includes plans for 5 benches – 2 sturdy English benches and 2 variations on the French Roubo, as well as a portable bench you can clamp to any solid surface. The old-school benches in this book are simpler than modern benches, easier to build and perfect for both power and hand tools.

Beginning woodworkers can build any of these benches. The technical drawings are clear and show every detail. Using the step-by-step instructions, you will be amazed at how easily these workbenches can be constructed.

Paperback — University of North Carolina Press, 1981 #RUTWS $27.00 Buy Now

At one time in Roy Underhill’s storied career, he was master housewright at Colonial Williamsburg. In 1979 he created the PBS series The Woodwright’s Shop, which became one of American’s leading how-to television shows, inspiring millions of viewers to take up the bench.

The Woodwright’s Shop is written with the most engaging sense of humor and illustrated by over 300 photographs. Underhill offers historical background, folklore, and era-bound technology as he introduces and details traditional woodworking. Underhill, aka Saint Roy, begins with a guide to trees and tools, and then moves on to chapters on gluts and mauls, shaving horses, rakes, chairs, weaving wood, hay forks, dough bowls, lathes, blacksmithing, dovetails, panel-frame construction, log houses, and timber-frame construction, as well as the author’s descriptions of the shoulders woodworkers in America stand upon.

The Woodwright’s Guide: Working Wood with Wedge and Edge by Roy Underhill

Paperback — University of North Carolina Press, 2008 #RUTWG $26.00 Buy Now

According to Christopher Schwarz, “The Woodwright’s Guide captures the true glory and mystery of the material that built this country, from the first swing of the axe to the final shaving of a smoothing plane. Roy Underhill’s impressive technical knowledge, respect for traditional methods, and amusing storytelling make this his finest effort to date. I devoured every word and enjoyed it immensely.” This says it all.

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The Perfect Edge

"... makes his new book 'The Perfect Edge' one that should not only be read cover to cover (multiple times), but owned and consulted regularly by any woodworker who is serious about his craft, and/or works with edged tools and/or likes their tools working at an optimum level... The book is beautifully presented, and absolutely jam-packed with well presented information... This is the bible on sharpening... If you but remember a fraction of this book, and put it into practice, your tools will be deadly sharp, and a pleasure to use." -- Stuart Lees